Trademark Damages Articles

Using the United States Courts’ annual Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics, Hampton IP looked at the number of copyright, patent, and trademark cases filed in federal district court and the percent of cases that reached trial annually over the last decade—March 31, 2010, through March 31, 2019.

A Summary Judgment ruling in Steves and Sons, Inc. v. JELD-WEN, Inc. heard in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2018, provides guidance to trade secret owners seeking damages under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”). The Court ruled that trade-secret damages may include anticipated future use of the trade secret under the DTSA if the anticipated future use is non-speculative and based on solid evidence.

On November 8, 2019, the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), and will consider whether the addition of “.com” transforms generic terms into protectable trademarks.

On June 28, 2019, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in a trademark dispute between Romag Fastener and Fossil to decide whether an award of an infringer’s profits requires a trademark owner to provide evidence the infringer acted willfully, a matter that has split the circuit courts.

On February 19, 2019, a federal judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina Western Division approved a $95,536,847 jury verdict against Walmart for willfully infringing Varsity Stores, Inc.’s “Backyard” trademarks in the sale of products bearing the BACKYARD GRILL+ Design mark. The case is Varsity Stores, Inc. v. Wal-Mart, Inc.